Mixer, Microsoft’s Twitch competitor, adds game sales

Twitch has long since allowed its streamers to generate revenue from their channels through things like subscriptions, virtual tipping and game sales. Microsoft is adopting one of those features for its own game streaming service, Mixer, with today’s launch of “Direct Purchase.”

The addition will allow streamers to promote purchases — including game titles and other content — that are available for sale from the Microsoft Store. It can support things like base games, specific game editions, downloadable content, add-on packs and more. All of these items can be purchased directly from the streamer’s Mixer channel itself, without having to exit the stream.

In total, there are more than 5,000 games that will be made available through Direct Purchase, including Xbox, Windows 10 and Xbox Play Anywhere titles, in addition to downloadable content.

To use Direct Purchase, Mixer broadcasters will first have to activate the feature, then select the content they want to promote.

When a viewer makes a purchase, the digital content will be automatically added to their Xbox or Windows 10 game library for later download. No tokens or codes will be required to make that happen, Microsoft also notes.

Microsoft will pay streamers 5 percent for every purchase from their channel. This is the same percentage that Twitch pays out to its Partners and Affiliates, for comparison’s sake. But unlike Twitch, which makes the option to sell games available to both its top- and mid-sized streamers, Mixer is currently opening the feature to partners only. (Those requirements are here.) More streamers will gain access in the months ahead.

The company had announced last month that Direct Purchase was coming, along with other monetization features like tipping. However, it’s just now rolling out in Preview mode today.

Over the next few days, the feature will begin to appear with some Mixer partners, and will finish rolling out widely across the platform over the next couple of months.